By NewsLine Staff
mail@floridanewsline.com
Nease Navy JROTC won the Area 12 Drill Championships on March 4 in Douglas, Georgia — winning this championship for the ninth consecutive year and thus earning a trip to the National Championships.
Nease competed against the top 16 Navy high school JROTC drill teams in Area 12, which includes all of northern Florida and the state of Georgia. Sixty-one NJROTC programs competed at local drill meets during the fall and winter with the top 16 advancing to the Area Championships. Nease earned its berth by winning first place at the South Effingham, Mandarin, and Terry Parker high schools’ drill competitions earlier.
In addition to winning the overall drill meet championship, Nease claimed first place in Overall Drill, Unarmed Exhibition, Unarmed Basic, Armed Basic, Color Guard, Overall Athletics, Pushups, Situps and 16×100 Relay; second place in Personnel Inspection; and third place in Armed Exhibition and Academics.
Several cadets also earned individual medals and awards for achievement including Paul Rukab, second place Individual Drill; Samuel Lewis (147) Pushups; Hailey Pitches (68) Pushups; Emily Chang (66) Pushups; MaCayla Cole-Banner (160) Situps; and Zachary Servello in Academics.
“The cadets really buckled down hard in practice leading up to the championship,” said Naval Science Instructor Master Chief Petty Officer Duane Spears. “Teamwork makes the dream work.”
Nease will now travel to the Navy National Drill Championships in Pensacola on March 29 – April 1. The Nease NJROTC program is also traveling to Nationals for Orienteering, Regionals in Drone and Brain Brawl. If you’d like to contribute to help offset these travel expenses or become a community partner with this No. 1 ranked program in the country, contact Sabra Sanchez at Pres@NeaseNJROTC.com for more details.
Photos courtesy Michael Donato
The Nease NJROTC Senior Cadets accepting the overall first place trophy at the Area 12 Drill Championships March 5.
